Preventing Sun Damage Indoors

Why let light ruin your furniture, floors and artwork, when the solution could be as simple as applying high-quality window film?

It's common knowledge that all that wonderful sunlight pouring through the window is not doing anything good for the furnishings, floors and artwork.

Fading, discoloration and fabric damage are the downsides of the sunlight — actually, any visible light — that floods our rooms. There are three main culprits in the spectrum of light: UVA and UVB rays cause 45 percent of the damage; heat/infrared radiation causes 25 percent; and visible light causes 25 percent, according to industry expert Ron Best of Protection Seattle.

Dealing with these culprits presents two tricky issues. The first is that damaging UV rays are present whether or not the sun is shining. Even on cloudy or rainy days, this silent destroyer is at work.

Remodel Your Fireplace

The fireplace is often the most commanding element in any room it’s in. Size and abundance of material are often factors, but as renovation specialist Ron Parko points out, our eyes are naturally drawn to the darkest object in a room anyway. Oftentimes, that’s the firebox when it’s unlit.
Naturally you want this element, and everything that surrounds it, to complement the rest of your home. In many older homes where large brick fireplaces prevail, this can pose a challenge. What do you do? Cover it, paint it, rip it out? Here’s what to consider.

Before Photo

Distinctive Mantel Designs, Inc

Project: Remodeling a fireplace wall.

Refacing Your Old Kitchen Cabinets

It may not always be practical or affordable to rebuild the cabinets in a kitchen or bathroom. Refacing them might be the best solution. But what does refacing involve? As with most construction projects, the answer depends on lots of details.

Cabinet Cures

Project: Refacing kitchen cabinets.

First step: Determine if your cabinets can take the restoration process well enough to be revitalized for at least another 10 years of life. If the cabinet body, or carcass, is in bad structural shape, is water damaged or will not take to refinishing well enough, you might have to replace the cabinets in a full kitchen remodel.

North Korea to the US: Kiss a Nuke-Free Korean Peninsula Goodbye

(North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the newly built National Space Development General Satellite Control and Command Centre.Reuters)  
More defiant North Korean nuclear weapons tests will be dependent on US moves in the Korean peninsula, the Hermit Kingdom announced on Tuesday.

North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said Washington had ruined the possibility of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reports.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon upped the ante by agreeing to equip South Korea with a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery — one of the most advanced missile defense systems in the world.

Pressure to deploy THAAD was spurred after Pyongyang tested its fourth nuclear bomb on January 6 and then launched a long-range rocket on February 7.

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency. U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency/Handout via Reuters/File Photo

Speaking to reporters at a meeting in Laos, Ri claimed that Pyongyang was a "responsible nuclear state and would not use its atomic arms unless threatened," Reuters reports.

However, the audacious tests have yet to cease.

Your White Kitchen Cabinets

White kitchen cabinets are chic and seemingly timeless. They work in kitchens of all sizes and with vintage, traditional or modern design aesthetics, which may be one reason they come up as the most popular kitchen cabinet color in Houzz survey after survey.

UPDATE: Rio Olympic Village, 'Not Safe, Not Ready'

Teams are housed in tower blocks at the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro

Olympic Games on the BBC
Venue: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dates: 5-21 August Time in Rio: BST -4
Coverage: Watch on BBC One, BBC Four, Red Button and up to 24 HD video streams on mobile, desktop and connected TVs, plus follow on Radio 5 live and via live text commentary.

Australian athletes will move into Rio's Olympic Village on Wednesday after seeing officials make "fantastic progress" in addressing concerns about the state of the accommodation.

The Australian delegation had refused to move in, citing "blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring".

But, after speaking to local officials, team boss Kitty Chiller said improvement work was being carried out.

Niger Delta AvengersStates Its Demands

In a statement released by its spokesperson, Col. Mudoch Agbinibo, they list 11 demands the federal government must fulfill. Below is the full text:

“We are a group of young Niger Deltans who have support from other parts of Nigeria, namely Northern, Western and Eastern part of the Country.

“We have watched with keen interest, the way and manner in which the President Muhammadu Buhari led APC Government runs the affairs of this country, and we are not pleased with the way things are going. For instance, the so-called anti-corruption fight is directed towards perceived enemies of the Government, and those that are sympathetic to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

LA-Area Fire: More Than 33,000 Acres Burnt

A massive Los Angeles-area wildfire has burned more than 33,000 acres, averaging about 10,000 acres a day, said Chief Mike Wakoski, Incident Commander So Cal Team 3.

Firefighters have been working to battle the massive Sand Fire near Santa Clarita since Friday.

The blaze is at 10 percent containment, officials said today.

About 10,000 homes were evacuated and several thousand homes were saved by firefighters, officials said today. 

Katharine Lotze/AP 

The Sand Fire burns near Wildlife Waystation on Little Tujunga Canyon Road on July 23, 2016.

Luis Sinco/LA Times via Getty Images  

A firefighter keeps watch on the path of the Sand fire as it burns out of control along Soledad Canyon Road near Acton on July 24, 2016.

Luis Sinco/LA Times via Getty Images  

Onlookers gather at the parking lot of a shopping mall along Golden Valley Road in Santa Clarita to watch the Sand fire burn in the hills above the city on July 24, 2016.

One death has been reported, officials said today.

The blaze has destroyed about 18 structures.

Thousands of people are helping fight the blaze, including 341 engines and 21 helicopters, officials said.

The origin of the fire is under investigation.

China Rolls out World's Largest Amphibious Aircraft

World's Largest Amphibious Aircraft

An official news agency says China has unveiled the world's largest amphibious aircraft that Beijing plans to use for marine missions and fighting forest fires.

The Xinhua News Agency said the AG600 rolled off a production line in Zhuhai in southern China on Saturday. It measures 37 meters (121 feet) in length with a wingspan of 39 meters (128 feet).

The report cites Chinese state aircraft maker, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, as saying the plane is nearly as big as a Boeing 737.

Last week, a Cessna 208B seaplane making its inaugural flight in China crashed into a highway bridge outside Shanghai, killing five people on board.

                                     

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/china-rolls-worlds-largest-amphibious-aircraft-40830840

Yahoo Gone for $4.8 billion

Verizon announced on Monday morning it will buy Yahoo for $4.83 billion in cash. It is the end of a closely scrutinized, six-month sale process.

Yahoo first put itself up for sale in February and it fielded multiple bids from many different types of buyers — supposedly as many as 40 at one point. Those included AT&T; Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert with financial backing from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett; and private equity firms TPG and Vector Capital Management.

According to Re/code, Yahoo informed the other bidders on Saturday that Verizon had won the process.

Rio Olympic Village, 'Not Safe, Not Ready'

 

View of the athletes Olympic Village during its inauguration for the Rio Olympic Games on June 15, 2016 (AFP Photo/Beth Santos)

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - The Australian Olympic team will not move into the athletes village in Rio after it was condemned as "not safe or ready" by the country's Chef de Mission on Sunday.

Team chief, Kitty Chiller, said problems include blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed and dirty floors in need of a massive clean.

She claimed that water has come through the ceiling resulting in large puddles on the floor around cabling and wiring.